Art trails: Henley Arts Trail, Oxfordshire Artweeks and Whiteknights Studio Trail plus the V&A!

 It's going to be a busy spring! I'll be at three arts trails and the V&A! 

Events

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Silversmithing demonstration at the V&A Museum
16 May

Join us at V&A South Kensington to see demonstrations by silversmiths whose work encompasses a range of styles and techniques.

Along with other silversmiths, I will be demonstrating as part of London Craft Week at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on the afternoon of 16 May. I will show my scoring tools and show how to score metal. I will also have some finished pieces to show that I made using the scoring technique.

Exhibitions

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A BANK HOLIDAY SHOWCASE OF CREATIVITY
4th-6th MAY
I will be at venue 13: Oaken Grove Vineyard

From Henley-On-Thames take the A4155 towards Marlow, after approx 1.5 miles turn left onto Benhams Lane and continue for approx 0.8 miles until you arrive at Oaken Grove vineyard.

Parking is available on site.

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18-26 May 2024 

Six great jewellers present a selection of jewellery and silversmithing in silver and gold to appeal to many different tastes. Beautifully crafted using traditional techniques, this gorgeous jewellery includes rings, earrings, necklaces, cuff links and more. There are pieces made with gold, silver, a combination of gold and silver and various gemstones. Our group includes three jewellery teachers and most of us accept commissions, so please come by and have a chat about jewellery and jewellery making! 

Venue:

Peach Croft Farm
Twelve Acre Drive
Abingdon
OX142HP

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Whiteknights Studio Trail
Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 June 2024

Whiteknights Studio Trail is coming! On the weekend of 8th and 9th June, we will open our studios and venues, to everyone who wants to see the art made in and around the university area of Reading.
I will be at 1 Marlborough Avenue.

Overdue update: exhibits next year and book news

 It's been a while since I updated, mostly due to finishing up at the Royal College of Art and graduating in September. It's been an eventful few months! The highlights are: 

Book News: 

You can listen to me chat about my and Janet's book "Silver Jewellery Making" with host Sharon on the Jewelry Journey podcast: find me here in two part episode number 207: https://thejewelryjourney.com/podcasts/ 

Our book is included in the Cooksongold Christmas catalogue: https://www.cooksongold.com/Books/Silver-Jewellery-Making-By-Machi-De-Waard-And-Janet-Richardson-prcode-999-A204 

And Kernowcraft now also stock it: https://www.kernowcraft.com/products/just-arrived/silver-jewellery-making-a-complete-step-by-step-course-for-beginners-machi-de-waard-janet-richardson

Jewellery News:

My work is available at the lovely New Ashgate Gallery, always worth a visit if you're into high quality craft! https://www.newashgate.org.uk/shop_artists/7702/c/101/machi-de-waard/jewellery 

I'm also delighted to have my work at Platform Gallery, Clitheroe: Winter Showcase of British Craft October 2023 – January 2024 

I will be participating in Henley Arts Trail 4-6 May 2024 - details to be confirmed, but I will be at a vineyard near Hembleden. 

I will also be taking part in Oxfordshire Artweeks at Peach Croft Farm near Abingdon - well worth a visit to see amazing work in a beautiful barn. And there's a lovely farm shop & cafe right next door! Plus plenty of parking. 18-26 May 2024

Teaching News: 

My regular evening classes at Maiden Erlegh in Reading are in full swing again. The next term starts January 29th. Please contact me if you have questions. 

I'm doing private lessons again as well, here are some examples of recent work by private lesson students: 

solid silver armband

silver oval hoop earrings

And lastly, rather randomly, I was on the radio talking to Andrew Peach on BBC Berkshire due to my connection with Reading PA and Reading UK, as I've lived the bulk of my life in one or the other! I'm on at around 7:25am - it was an early morning!- which you can find here (scroll to about 1 hour 25 minutes in): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ghx2qh

Royal College of Art Public Exhibition 30 June - 3 July 2023

 

RCA2023: Royal College of Art Battersea

I will be exhibiting my work made at the RCA in the Woo Building on the first floor. 

Woo Building
Royal College of Art
Howie Street
London SW11 3AN

30 June – 3 July 2023

From 30 June to 3 July, MA students who started in September 2022 will be offering visitors an insight into the RCA’s work and creativity, through exhibitions, events, interactive activities and discussions with artists, designers and creative practitioners.

Opening hours

Open to the public from 12–6pm daily, with a late opening on Friday 30 June until 7.30pm.

Getting to the RCA

For information on getting to the RCA, and the accessibility of our campuses, see Visiting the RCA.

RCA2023 online

Physical exhibitions and events will be accompanied by a digital platform allowing visitors from across the world to discover content by theme and collections.

New jewellery classes in Oxford & Henley and Arts Trail in September

 

 

Henley School of Art

New Classes:

Saturday 25 September – Making Silver Rings

Saturday 23 October – Making Silver Bangles

Saturday 4 December – Making Silver Rings

Learn the basics of silver jewellery making a wear a piece you made yourself by the end of the course! For more information and to book, see www.thehenleyschoolofart.com/courses

 

JASSO
New termly class!
Thursdays 10am - 1pm

Starts 16 September  I will be teaching a 10 week class at the fantastic workshop of the Jewellery and Silversmithing Society of Oxford. To join, you must be a member of JASSO but joining is incredibly good value at £20/year.

 

11 & 12 September 2021
I will be at Venue 10 St. Luke’s Community Hall, Norfolk Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7AT along with six other artists. Come see jewellery, paintings and ceramics!

Real Events! In person! not on zoom!

 Hurrah, things are finally showing signs of perking up! I am *delighted* to be taking part in the following: 

Oxford Arts Week 2021

As soon as I know what days I will be there, I will post! I am excited about chatting with people again! 

14 – 24 May 2021

Peach Croft Farm Barn, Twelve Acre Drive, Abingdon, OX14 2HP
Venue #176 website:  Peach Croft Farm Artists Facilities Available:  Accessible for Wheelchairs, Demonstrations, Refreshments, Parking

You can see my exhibitor’s page here: https://www.artweeks.org/artist-profiles/2021/machi-de-waard

With jewellers: Janet Richardson, Julia Benning, Judi Rowlands, Alexandra von Widdern and Sally Spencer

Henley Arts Trail 2021

10 – 11 July and 17 – 18 July

I will be participating in the Henley Arts Trail at the Henley School of Art. More details to follow…

Cookham and Maidenhead Art Trail – CAMAT

11-12 September 2021

I will be participating in this arts trail at the St Lukes venue. More details to follow….

 

Also, I am very happy to exhibit my work from June - August 2021 at the Platform Gallery:

Platform Gallery, Station Road, Clitheroe, BB7 2JT

https://www.facebook.com/theplatformgallery/

 

 

The making of a silver mini locket with a gold ball

Lockdown 2.0 projects! I've been working on a mini locket. Below are the progress photos and also photos of the finished item!

This is the locket before any findings were added:

 And here we have the beginning of the hinge:

 

 

This photo shows the first two side knuckles of the hinge, each about 1mm wide.

  

 

This photo shows the hinge with the middle knuckle now also attached.   

 

 

Here is the tiny bit of tube being soldered on to make the clasp on the other side of the locket:

 

 

 

This is the beginnings of the part of the clasp that will hold the locket shut.

 

  

 

This is the locket before finishing and before the hinge has been properly finished with a rivet.

 

 

Finally, here we have the finished locket. It is a mix of argentium and sterling silver, with an 18ct gold ball embedded in the front which is also visible from the inside. The silver has a brushed finish. And the cat is my parents' cat, Miles, because why not?

New Jewellery on Not on the High Street

 I've been tidying up my Not on the High Street shop by adding new packaging and gift tag options. I also added these four new pairs of earrings:

 

Update on Silver Jewellery Making book and other things

 I'm delighted to be part of the Craft Council Directory - a fabulous list of many of the amazing makers in the UK across many disciplines. The link is: https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/directory/machi-de-waard-jewellery

In book news, Silver Jewellery Making is nearing completion. By completion, I mean nearing the end of many, many stages of editing. We're down to the nitty gritty now!!! The marketing team have made this lovely leaflet:

 

 

I'm working on some new pieces - namely five pendants - which I will hopefully have photos of soon. 

Silver Jewellery Making book

Janet and I have been hard at work trying to make our book, Silver Jewellery Making, the best it can possibly be. Yesterday we had the last photo shoot at our publisher, Search Press. We added extra images to clarify some techniques and took many photos of tools to show them more clearly. We also added more images to properly illustrate our "how to design" chapter. The photographer, Mark, did an amazing job. Between him and the design direction from Search Press, the tools were turned into works of art! Below are a selection of photos from the day. The cupcake snuck in there because one of the team at Search Press had a special birthday and we luckily got to join in with the cake! The book is coming together well and I really hope that by the time it's published in February 2021, we will be able to throw a big party and invite loads of people!

cupcake

Files made to look beautiful!

the propane torch gets its time in the limelight (although all the projects in the book are done with a handheld torch, we wanted to show different torch options).

tools and the big lights for the photos

silver being photographed

lace bangles

At the beginning of lockdown, I worked on several jewellery projects that had been languishing as low priority items on my bench for quite a while. One of these was a lace imprint bangle. A while ago, I made this bangle with three little claps that were meant to be reminiscent of a corset fastening:

Hm, I can see my photography skills have improved since then as well, ha! Anyway...I had been thinking for ages that I wanted to improve on the clasps with a slightly different look and a better solution for soldering them (if you look very closely at the above bangle, you can see the solder join on the wire clasp bits isn't quite rounded at one part). So, I finally got around to it and was very pleased with the result. It looks like this:

There's an inside lip under the clasp to make it really smooth on the inside for comfortable wearing. The clasps are easier to use because they have a little bobble on them, plus I like the look of them! It's quite an old fashioned clasp, often used on the side of bracelets as an extra safety clasp to make sure it can't open and fall off.

Also, I've joined Instagram, find me there: @machi_jewellery

Jewellery made by my students

This term has abruptly ended because of the current virus situation, so I thought I would share some photos of jewellery made by my students in Chesham and Reading this term.

Made by Gill: hammered texture napkin ring

Made by Jane: matching set of earrings and ring with bezel set agate cabochons

Made by Kirsty: punch pattern silver cuff bracelet

Made by Natalie: small bezel set onyx stud earrings

Also Natalie: a rather fabulous rectangle statement necklace. Although it did get amended later because it didn't hang quite right, but I don't have a photo of the updated version!

Made by Rachel: a ring with a large, beautiful stone and on a double ring shank beneath.

Also made by Gill: a swirl of silver wire necklace

Made by Ruth: a very impressive small box with friction fit lid and tree and leaf decorations in brass.

Made by Sarah: a large checkerboard cut stone ring. The stone has subtle colour changes in the light.

Made by Maureen: an impressive cuff bracelet with a simple and elegant result that took quite a lot of effort!

Made by Cora: a very impressive square box with bezel set coral cabochons. Nobody ask how long this took!!!

Made by Helena: elegant moonstone cabochon cufflinks.

Made by Tony: two tube settings on a d-shape ring shank.

Made by Jo: a successful bezel set rose quartz ring.

Made by Gill: bezel set small oval amethyst dangle earrings.

Made by Cora: unusual stone bezel set with decorative gallery wire. Don't mention the melted ones!

Made by Victoria: fun and effective school of fish silver cuff bangle.

Made by Sarah: a brilliant result - hinged square locket with clasp!

Made by Cathy: fabulous rectangular box with friction fit lid.

Made by Susanna: hammer texture pendant with blue cabochon stone.

Made by John: twisted wire rings.

Made by Gill: I forget the name of these things - silver twist and pin to hold a knitted cardigan together.

Made by Jane: ammonite bezel set from the back (this is the front).